Chương 673: Main Quest and Secondary Quest Rewards.

While the four Sylvans were down below fighting, Flor, Ignatia, Verena, Mariane, and Melody flew around Liu Shu's canopy while clearing out monsters. Ignatia acted as the frontline, helped by Verena's summons, while Flor, Melody, and Mariane worked from behind. The mothkin was a powerful support, using both strengthening and weakening buffs, while also afflicting a large array of mental poisons with her moth scales. Melody had mostly buffing abilities, her music giving them strong buffs and even healing auras.

Meanwhile, Flor was a literal elemental storm. With a wave of her hand, fire, light, space, and many other Aether Mana spells manifested, attacking all her enemies in the thousands. Her refined battle method was simple: bombard her enemies with simple spells until they fall. Meanwhile, Verena focused on her summons and healing them with her skills. She was a one-Sylvan army, able to keep the frontlines by herself if needed, 'if' being a very important differentiator.

After all, there was one individual in the front lines doing that work with ease. Ignatia, if you had to describe her in one word, the most accurate one would be "violence." The Humanoid Ant Queen tore everything in front of her with her bare hands, her attacks creating shockwaves and making the very air tremble. Moreover, with her <Title> making it impossible for her to become maimed, she tanked all attacks head-on and ripped her enemies into pieces before finishing them off. Verena couldn't help but be impressed.

"I knew Ignatia was strong, but she is much more of a monster than I gave her credit for." Melody chuckled.

"I am honestly glad that Little Liu Shu and she didn't become enemies. I think that Ignatia would've been able to overpower our Liu Shu back then if she wanted to." Ignatia snorted from the front lines, her fist making the head of a monster explode.

"How could I become an enemy of my precious baby girl!? I don't want to hear even hypotheticals!" She jumped, her figure blurring, and then spun mid-air to land a horrifying kick to the back of a flying monster. BOOM! The monster screeched, its back bending at an impossible angle as it pummeled down into a branch and exploded in a gory mess. The other four couldn't help but gulp. Flor was scary, as her elemental barrage was terrifying.

However, there was something primal in the way Ignatia punched her way through everything, making them tremble with fear. Well, three of them were trembling in fear, and the last one was trembling with other emotions rising in her chest. While fighting, Ignatia's perceptive compound eyes caught sight of something.

"Hmm?" Her head turned, her antennae cutely flopping with her movements. A snake thought that it could sneak-attack her and launched itself toward Ignatia's back. The Ant Queen spun and kicked, her dainty and beautiful foot landing on the lower jaw of the snake and sending her flying skyward.

"Can't you see that I am busy, little snake? Let Mommy Ignatia take a look, and I'll kill you later." The snake with a broken jaw wanted to cry. Where did this monster come from? Meanwhile, Ignatia flashed through the branches and arrived at the location where she saw something strange. Because of the lushness of Liu Shu's canopy, looking even a few meters out was difficult. That was why there were so many ambush predators lurking in the area.

Even when most of them were Level 100, the place would be far from a walk in the park for average explorers.

"Oh? Berries?" Ignatia was quite surprised and reached for one. [You've picked a <Delicious Berry (A+ Rank)>!] [Congratulations! You've triggered <Secondary Mission: Berry Hunting>.] [Description: While the monsters have taken root in the World Tree's canopy, the berries in them are poisonous to them. Collect as many berries as you can!] [Objective: Collect berries. 0/48, 451, 785, 620 berries. (Monthly Dungeon Quest)] [Reward: Carry the berries collected outside.] [Additional Reward: If you collect 99. 9% of the berries, each participant will receive <Eternal Shop Points> based on contributions at the end of the month.] [Note: This mission will be shared among all those who enter this area and will be reset each month outside.] [Note: Time relative to World Tree Tianlan Liu Shu.] [Note: If berries are picked outside, they will count toward the <Berry Hunting> Quest.] Ignatia and all the other people who came read the mission and became surprised.

Flor's eyes became complicated as she glanced at the branches of the World Tree and the mission.

"This… Quest is a bit…" She didn't know how to describe it. It just felt odd. Ignatia was not afraid to say it, and pondered aloud.

"The number of berries is about 90% more than the number of berries Liu Shu could provide at Level 101. Hoever, since a few years have passed, I can bet that our darling has already reached Level 120… perhaps 130. So, that number of berries should be related and scaling with Liu Shu's growth. Similar to before." The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. Mariane was also not afraid to point out the oddities.

"This basically confirms that the <Dungeon> is related… No, it is entangled with Liu Shu. The reason can be many, but from all the books I've read, I have one hypothesis." Ignatia nodded at her, ignoring the other three hesitating women.

"Say, don't worry. You are one of the few friends Liu Shu has. Even if your theory is insulting, we'll only tackle it from a logical perspective." Mariane smiled, her moth wings buzzing happily.

"Thank you, Aunty Ignatia. I was thinking that this <Dungeon> was being created in the past, but it never came into being because of the <Atemporal> evolution. When all the <Dungeons> closed, this one was probably entangled in that. We later discovered that the <Dungeons> were opening according to their Level Cap, right?" Ignatia nodded.

"This goes up to Level 199... right?"

"Exactly." Mariane nodded, her antennae bobbing up and down.

"So, while the <Dungeon> was evolving, Liu Shu suddenly took control over the space-time around herself to create her own domain." Flor finally joined the conversation.

"Are you speaking of the time frame that Liu Shu became translucent?"

"Yes!" Mariane became excited as the puzzle pieces perfectly fell into place.

"During that time, Liu Shu probably needed to merge with her surroundings. She didn't notice the existence of this <Dungeon>, but it became involuntarily entangled with Liu Shu. Moreover, since it was a <Dungeon> related to her feats, there was a high synergy rate between them, which caused no conflicts." Verena also joined the conversation.

"So… This <Dungeon> has become tied down to Liu Shu's existence, and the portal that appeared on top of her head is the one that links her to it. This place, while being inside a <Dungeon>, is also partially connected to our real Liu Shu. That would explain why the quest is worded so specifically." Melody sighed, rubbing her forehead.

"It would also explain why going out of bounds makes us feel that sense of encroaching death. The space beyond the World Tree inside the <Dungeon> is like the world outside the cathedral. From the warnings of those who have appeared in the cathedral area, any creature that dares go out of the structure will die from ternary essence twisting. Here, the boundary is not visible, but it still exists." Flor, Ignatia, Mariane, and Verena agreed with her words and sighed. Ignatia chuckled.

"My baby did another ridiculous thing, it seems." Flor asked, unsure.

"Do we inform Arven of our guesses?"

"Yes," Mariane stated seriously.

"He has already said that he would be our ally. Not to mention, even if you block any Explorer from entering, they have already received this <Secondary Quest>. It is not that difficult to put the clues together if they allow their minds to think outside the box." Flor sighed and nodded.

"Alright, we will speak to him about our guesses. This is a very uncommon event, so I doubt the <Explorer Association> would get greedy over it." Ignatia smirked.

"On the contrary, I think that telling them about it in as much detail as possible will only do Liu Shu good." Verena's intelligent eyes flashed.

"Ah… I understand. They are some sort of <Dungeon> guardians, right? They are a neutral party that spreads their influence by taking control of <Dungeons>. Now, a <Dungeon> as unique as this one has appeared, so Liu Shu will become a protected zone. The number of coincidences to create this particular <Dungeon> is too many to replicate, after all."

"Exactly. Liu Shu had gone from something interesting to something unique. Not precious. Unique." Ignatia reiterated, her smile scheming.

"Our reports don't need to be exaggerated. They are not stupid people, so trying to exaggerate things will only backfire. It will give them an idea that we are desperate. Instead, if we show things as they are, the message is one of information and goodwill." After hearing their discussion, Flor also got on board. While she was protective of Liu Shu's secrets, she knew that being overly protective would make those curious want to poke around more.

If they lay things out as they were, the mystery disappeared for the most part, giving way to normal explanation. Everyone continued looking around for a while, trying to see if there was another <Secondary Quest> in here. However, other than the <Main Quest> and the <Berry Hunting> one, they found nothing. Cinderielle and the others returned when the number of enemies defeated reached 4, 700. They had completed the quest below, <Secondary Quest: World Tree Avatar>, and managed to save the replica Avatar.

As a reward, they received a 100, 000 Experience reward and some B+ Tier accessories. They were not that great compared to the ones Liu Shu had created for them, but they were sure it would come in handy for their children when they reached Level 100. The most important reward was the <Eternal Shop Points> they received and the Experience Points. It was extremely abundant, after all. A single full clear gave them around 800, 000 Experience Points. Cinderielle asked the other three, curious.

"I wonder how often this <Secondary Quest> resets." Verdantia nodded and sighed.

"I wish it reset daily."

"You are delirious." Harmonixia laughed.

"I would be happy if it resets every month. No one else knows about it, after all." Tempestria smiled.

"We'll need to enter daily to check it. Also, the berry quest is quite interesting."

"Nothing to do with us. It's good, but it's a bit of a waste of time. We could be doing other things instead of gathering berries." Cinderielle's dismissal made Verdantia thoughtful.

"Are you sure? How about we try to join the Berry Gatherers for the first month and see the rewards? If they are worth it, we can take a few hours in the morning to come here and collect some berries." Cinderielle thought about it and didn't find any fault in trying.

"We can try for a bit longer. It's not like we are lacking time. The threat Mother-in-law Melody discovered at the edge of our Solar System will take a while to arrive, so we can experiment during this time with this portal." The four nodded and then joined the rest, ready to finish the <Main Quest> and leave the area. The reward for the <Main Quest> was some <Eternal> materials and 20, 000 Experience Points.

If they could do this <Main Quest> daily, it would give almost 600, 000 Experience Points monthly without taking the kills into account! Only later would they realize that the <Main Quest> could be completed weekly, while the <Secondary Quests> could only be completed monthly. The rewards for the Berry Hunting mission were also not particularly attractive to Verdantia and the others, so they left it to the Berry Gatherer group.

Even then, when they came to complete the <Main Quest>, they would take some time to collect the berries they encountered. After all, it was free Experience Points and <Eternal Shop Points>.